FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

Format for Trump-Putin Helsinki Summit Sets Democrats Howling

July 14, 2018 (EIRNS)—The summit meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump will begin at 10:00 UTC (06:00 U.S. Eastern Time) on Monday, July 16, and it will be held in the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland, President Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters Friday, reported TASS.

First the two Presidents will meet, accompanied only by their interpreters. Trump will arrive in Helsinki on Sunday, and Putin will arrive Monday, Ushakov said.

“We don’t actually know how much time the discussion between the two Presidents will take up. We don’t have any restrictions on our part. It will kick off with a tte-á-tte conversation where only the interpreters will be present. After that, the Russian-U.S. negotiators proper [Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov] will begin, and most probably they will have the format of a working breakfast, with some members of the delegations attending,”

he said.

“After the negotiations, the Presidents are supposed to hold a news conference where each of them will make an address to the audience and will answer four questions—two questions from each side,”

he said, stating that this is “a standard format for news conferences of this kind.”

Ushakov complained that the press had incorrectly reported that the demand for a “tte-á-tte” had come from Trump, saying, “All of this falls in line with our interests, and we’d also like the summit to kick off in exactly this format.”

Meanwhile, back in the Beltway, several Democratic Congressmen have issued hysterical calls to cancel the summit, along with the reliably hysterical Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). Said McCain, “If President Trump is not prepared to hold Putin accountable, the summit in Helsinki should not move forward.” Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), the vice-chairman on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the President should cancel the one-on-one meeting: “If the President won’t make Russia’s attack on our election the #1 issue at the summit, then it should be canceled,” Warner tweeted. He added the insult, “There should be no one-on-one meeting between this President and Mr. Putin; there need to be other Americans in the room.” Democrats Rep. Adam Schiff, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Sen. Chuck Schumer, and DNC Chairman Tom Perez gnashed their teeth and issued similar statements.